So Much Energy

 This week in Science we have been talking about Energy. We learned that different animals eat different things to get energy and that they use that energy to do work or play. As a lead in to our next unit on habitats, we discussed how animals have to find foods in the places that they live.

I wanted the children to understand that there were more kinds of energy than just food energy and more kinds of work than just the work we do each day as humans, so we did a little sort that would show several other types of energy.

We discussed that energy can make things move, warm things up, make noise, and light things up.
The children were asked to sort the different objects into which category they belonged.

Here is our finished chart! There was a great teachable moment while we were working and I was very impressed with how the children handled it! We got down to making light and the only card that we had left was the hot bowl. I asked the children if this made sense and they said no. Then I explained that sometimes the last card isn't always going to go in the last spot and we need to stop and make sure that the answer makes sense. We found that we had a few mistakes, but through talking it out, we were able to get them all where they should go. 

After our discussion, I wanted the children to take this one step farther and related it back to their own lives. I asked them to look at the different types of energy and then draw an item that would fit each category. 

Here are some of the things they came up with!!